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SAN FRANCISCO
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Commission Chambers, Room 400
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
12:30 p.m.
Regular Meeting
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Hasz, Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram
THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER BY PRESIDENT HASZ AT 12:32 P.M.
STAFF IN ATTENDANCE:
Kelly Wong, Tim Frye - Preservation Coordinator, Jonas P. Ionin –Commission Secretary.
SPEAKER KEY:
+ indicates a speaker in support of an item;
- indicates a speaker in opposition to an item; and
= indicates a neutral speaker or a speaker who did not indicate support or opposition.
A. PUBLIC COMMENT
SPEAKER(S): None
B. DEPARTMENT MATTERS
1. Director’s Report
Preservation Coordinator Tim Frye: The Director’s Report is included in your packet and I am happy to any questions you have any at this time.
2. Review of Past Events at the Planning Commission, Staff Report and Announcements
Mr. Frye: Just a couple of items to share with you since your last hearing, two items at the Planning Commission on October 2nd. First, is Commission received this commission's letter suggesting the retention of the facade on the historic property as part of the proposal for 1545 Pine Street. At the October 2nd hearing, the Planning Commission unanimously certificated the EIR and approved the project as proposed without retaining that facade. Part of the reasoning there was many commissioners or a couple commissioners remarked that they felt that the proposed design was successful and referenced the massing in the historic property from a contextual perspective and therefore, they did not -- while they were appreciative of the letter, they did not see retention of the facade as being an improvement to the overall design of the proposal. At the same hearing the Commission also reviewed the office conversion legislation reviewed by this commission. For the benefit of the public, this is
a piece of legislation proposed by Supervisor Cohen in regards to allowing for office conversion from PDR uses in landmark buildings. The Commission had many similar comments to the HPC and unanimously recommended approval of the proposed legislation with the modifications that we discussed here. There was some public comment suggesting that there may be other methods for limiting the office conversion but the commission remarked that they felt that the vertical controls that are outlined in the proposed legislation was the most effective tool for enforcing the requirement rather than a percentage of the floor or another method of calculation. So that will be the proposed legislation will be moving on to the Board of Supervisors and we will keep you updated on the progress. That concludes my remarks unless you have any questions about the Planning Commission. Thank you.
C. COMMISSION MATTERS
3. President’s Report and Announcements - None
4. Consideration of Adoption:
· Draft Minutes for October 1, 2014
Commissioner Pearlman: I just have a question. While I very much appreciate Mr. Frye's comments and everybody's comments, I'm wondering why we don't have all the text of the comments about the projects, whereas, like I said, I really appreciate your comments, Mr. Frye, which are detailed quite specifically, but then we get to something like the Civic Center Inventory and other things and all it says is so and so spoke and this is what the commission decided. So I'm wondering -- because I would think that's where we would want to pick up a lot of the issues that we've discussed to make sure they are portrayed accurately. I don't know if there's a reason that that's not done. Maybe, Mr. Ionin, you can….
Commission Secretary Jonas Ionin: That’s always been the practice. The requirement for the minutes is to indicate who spoke, whether or not they were in favor or in opposition or neutral to the project. We indicate those with minus signs and the plus signs, and then we very briefly paraphrase what the person said without actually transcribing verbatim what a person says. I worry that we may not provide what the person said or the intent of the person, what the person said accurately and, to be quite honest, it would be a tremendous amount of work to transcribe what every commissioner says for every one and the final action is what really matters.
President Hasz: It is memorialized on tape.
Mr. Ionin: It is recorded. The audio is recorded and SFGovTV does report our proceedings now.
Commissioner Johnck: May I suggest an idea about this because over many, many years I have done many, many minutes and they are, depending on the topic, very challenging to try to summarize, particularly the type of discussion that we had. So I can appreciate staff's issue, response to this. But I was thinking if we feel strongly about, you know, what we said that we could submit something, right, submit something to the record that could appear in the minutes. I'm just suggesting that -- if our comments, in other words, if we thought this was really important that we should maybe submit something.
Mr.Ionin: I think we could if they were prepared in advance and your comments that you provided at the hearing, you read off of those bullet points and we could include those. I would only caution providing written comments after the fact to be included in the minutes you could add things that weren't necessarily provided at the hearing. It just gets a little sketchy.
Commissioner Johnck: I agree, something immediate. If we write down bullet points or something, that would be my solution.
Commissioner Pearlman I certainly understand that most of the things that we're talking about are fairly straightforward. There just have been a number of issues, the PDR office conversion and some of these bigger things like the Civic Center Inventory. Things like that, it garners a lot of conversation and we don't even get, we don't even have a bullet point about, you know, what the conversation was about. So, you know, and then with Mr. Frye and the Director there's, it's pretty much verbatim what they said and that seems less important. The report seems less important than the discussion of salient, you know, salient projects or something. So that's where I came down, but I appreciate very much the challenge it would be.
Commissioner Wolfram: Actually I just had a question about when did we start doing this verbatim description in the beginning is pretty new, right? What did we do before?
Mr. Ionin: It is relatively new, Commissioner Wolfram. I appreciate you noticing that. You may recall that I was fortunate enough to hire an assistant and a Manager of the Commission Affairs and Christine Lamorena has been striving to make our minutes from the office consistent and so it's something we provide the Planning Commission and we decided to provide it to you as well. It prevents us from having to second-guess what you were trying to say and just put down exactly what you said.
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Adopted
AYES: Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram, Hasz
5. Commission Comments & Questions - None
6. (T. FRYE: (415)575-6822)
Cultural Heritage Assets Subcommittee - Report from the Commission
D. CONSENT CALENDAR
All matters listed hereunder constitute a Consent Calendar, are considered to be routine by the Historic Preservation Commission, and may be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the Commission. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the Commission, the public, or staff so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed from the Consent Calendar and considered as a separate item at this or a future hearing
7. 2014.1349H (K. WONG: (415)575-9100)
685 MARKET STREET – south side of Market Street between Kearny Street and Annie Street, Assessor’s Block 3707, Lot 051. Request for a Major Permit to Alter for in-kind replacement of the exterior wythe of brick at the Annex Wall only. Constructed in 1906 by Architects Meyer & O’Brien, 685 Market Street (historically known as the Monadnock Building) is a ten-story steel-frame and brick curtain wall building with Renaissance / Baroque ornamentation. The building features a tripartite composition with a non-historic glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) base constructed in the 1980’s, brick masonry throughout the building, and terra cotta at the upper levels. The subject property is designated individually as a Category I (Significant) building under Article 11 of the Planning Code.
Preliminary Recommendation: Approve
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Adopted
AYES: Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram, Hasz
MOTION: M-0242
E. REGULAR CALENDAR
8. 2014.1383U (T. FRYE FOR G. HILYARD: (415) 575-9109)
CIVIC CENTER CULTURAL LANDSCAPE INVENTORY – Consideration to adopt, modify, or disapprove the findings of the inventory. The Department-sponsored survey focused on the landscape characteristics and setting of the existing Civic Center Landmark District. The Department identified character-defining landscape features of the Civic Center Landmark District and identified a period of significance from 1896-1951. The purpose of the survey is to inform planning decisions within Civic Center and to encourage sensitive design treatment and maintenance of the district’s cultural landscape. The general boundaries of the survey area are: Golden Gate Avenue to the north, UN Plaza to the east, Market Street to the south, and Franklin Street to the west.
(Continued from October 1, 2014)
Preliminary Recommendation: Adopt
SPEAKERS: None
ACTION: Continued to December 3, 2014
AYES: Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram, Hasz
9. (T. FRYE FOR M. BROWN: (415)575-9074)
LANDMARK DESIGNATION WORK PROGRAM - Informational Presentation and Performance Measures update focused on the Landmark Designation Work Program. This informational item was calendared at the HPC’s request at its regularly scheduled hearing August 20, 2014.
Preliminary Recommendation: The HPC may modify the Work Program based on discussion with Planning Staff and members of the public.
SPEAKERS: = Bellas Yedler, Representative from the Potrero District - Gathered 222 signatures to petition the Ladies Home be designated as a historical landmark;
= Desiree Smith, SF Architectural Heritage - Recommended the Ingleside Presbyterians Church and the Great Hall of Witnesses are potential landmarks for the Designation Work Program.
ACTION: Continued to November 19, 2014 for prioritization from staff.
AYES: Hyland, Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram, Hasz
Adjournment: 1:37 PM
The minutes was proposed for adoption at the Regular Meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday, November 5, 2014.
ACTION: Adopted
AYES: Hasz, Hyland Johnck, Johns, Matsuda, Pearlman, Wolfram
